Israel challenges UNRWA over alleged staff casualties in Gaza strike
Israel has hit back at claims that six UNRWA workers were killed in an airstrike on a Hamas command and control centre in a building previously used as a school, saying three of the nine terrorists eliminated were also employees of the embattled agency.
An UNRWA facility in the southern Gaza town of Rafah where Israeli forces discovered a Hamas tunnel in June. Photo by TPS-IL
The Israel Defence Forces on Thursday afternoon released the names of nine terrorists killed in what used to be the Al Jaouni School in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, and said the UN Relief and Works Agency has not responded to the army’s repeated requests for the names of the staffers allegedly killed.
Israel struck the building on Wednesday, saying Hamas used it to plan and carry out attacks, and took measures to mitigate harm to civilians, including aerial surveillance and using precision munitions.
Dual Roles
“Upon receiving the allegation that local Palestinian workers of the UNRWA agency were killed in an attack, the IDF contacted the agency yesterday for details and names in order to examine the allegation in depth and as of this writing it has yet to be answered despite repeated requests,” the IDF said.
The army also released the names of the nine terrorists killed in the strike, including three it said were simultaneously UNRWA employees.
Those three were identified as Muhammad Adnan Abu Zayd, who was responsible for launching mortars at soldiers and into Israel; Yasser Ibrahim Abu Sharar, an operative in Hamas’ emergency bureau in Nuseirat; and Ayad Matar, another Hamas terrorist whose specific role was not indicated.
The other six were identified as Aysar Karadia, Amar al-Jadili, and Akram Saber al-Ghalaydi, who all served in Hamas’s Internal Security Forces; Bassem Majed Shaheen and Muhammad Issa Abu al-Amir who both participated in the October 7 massacre; and Sharif Salam, whose specific role was not indicated.
Embattled UNRWA
Israeli officials have demanded that UNRWA, which supports Palestinian refugees be stripped of its authority in Gaza and defunded amid revelations that members of the agency’s staff participated in Hamas’s October 7 attacks. Israel has bypassed UNRWA in distributing aid and the Knesset is advancing legislation designating the agency as a “terror organization,” stripping away its diplomatic immunity, tax-exempt status, and other legal benefits.
More than 100 survivors of Hamas’s October 7 attacks filed a $1 billion lawsuit against UNRWA in June, accusing the agency of “aiding and abetting” the terror group.
Palestinian refugees are the only refugee population with its own dedicated UN agency. The rest of the world’s refugees fall under the mandate of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Israeli officials have called for UNRWA to be closed and for Palestinian refugees to be brought under the responsibility of the UNHCR.
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 97 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.
